Australia: Security guards at Wickham Point call asylum seekers by number rather than name

via newmatilda.com, this tidbit from the asylum seeker industrial complex:

Serco officers at Wickham Point call asylum seekers by ID number rather than name. I witnessed this on two separate occasions, including once where the officer was handing out ID cards at the end of a visit (with photo, name and ID number) to a group of six asylum seekers including girls as young as 12, two single women and a married couple who have experienced significant torture and trauma. The asylum seekers were so accustomed to this that they knew each other’s ID numbers almost instinctively and pointed each other out as they were called out, yet some of them didn’t even speak the same language.

I questioned a senior officer about this dehumanising practice on my way out of the centre. I told the officer I thought it was inappropriate and went against Serco policy. He responded that this was standard practice, and that asylum seekers “would be more embarrassed if we mispronounced their names”.

Serco, together with the multinational G4S are in charge of immigrant detention centers pretty much all over the Western world. I’ve mentioned their dehumanizing practices several times before and the way they treat detainees has been well documented. Children under the care of Serco grow up mute, with severe trauma. Adult detainees go through long term hunger strikes and face physical as well as psychological abuse and now, rather than be addressed by name, they have become a number in the for profit administration of their lives.

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